July 2023 Observations and Discussion

[CentralNebWeather]

I have to say that today feels worse than any day this week. I did a good job of watering the yard with my sweat as I mowed. Here is the 1 pm reading with a 74 dew. Just brutal. 

[OttumwaSnomow]

5 hours ago, Stormy said:

I agree it's ridiculous, and the Cedar Rapids area was especially dry this month. And a large chunk of Iowa largely missed out in the last few weeks with beneficial rains practically all around our state. But Iowa still doesn't look quite as bad on the drought monitor (see Clinton's post above) as states to the north, west, and south. 

Its been a crazy 90 days in the counties surrounding  me. We mow and work on farms in 6 counties. And at times its literally  a huge difference  just 3 to 5 miles  away! For example  lake Rathbun  one end has been lush green and the other end dust and cracks galore! I think the folks at the  drought monitor  can simply  not reflect what im seeing on the ground all around se iowa! These chin high soybeans just  1.5 miles from my land. But solidly in the D3.

[Andie]

We’re doing more than baking. 
Wildfires have begun.  Hard on wildlife.  This is west of me.  
We’re at 99* so far.  

[gabel23]

3 hours ago, CentralNebWeather said:

I’ll add my 2 cents on the heat wave. We have these every summer. This one has felt worse in that we had 2 months of above normal rainfall preceding it. Also, corn is putting off a lot of water which is only adding to the dews. Finally, we’ve had little to no wind so there hasn’t been a breeze for any relief. 

Agreed! Normally we have wind with our heat waves in the past but not this year! Just so brutal out there…..I have never seen a dew point this high in my area, at least I can’t remember it this high. Columbus has a feel like of 120+ surprisingly my station says pretty much the same. 98 air temp and 80 dew point. 

[OKwx2k4]

3 hours ago, CentralNebWeather said:

I’ll add my 2 cents on the heat wave. We have these every summer. This one has felt worse in that we had 2 months of above normal rainfall preceding it. Also, corn is putting off a lot of water which is only adding to the dews. Finally, we’ve had little to no wind so there hasn’t been a breeze for any relief. 

I don't disagree with that assessment at all. If we were breaking records at peak summer, it'd be extreme, however, due to humidity, the above avg and discomfort is at night.

This has actually been an incredibly good summer in a lot of places. 

[Stormy]

1 hour ago, OttumwaSnomow said:

Its been a crazy 90 days in the counties surrounding  me. We mow and work on farms in 6 counties. And at times its literally  a huge difference  just 3 to 5 miles  away! For example  lake Rathbun  one end has been lush green and the other end dust and cracks galore! I think the folks at the  drought monitor  can simply  not reflect what im seeing on the ground all around se iowa! These chin high soybeans just  1.5 miles from my land. But solidly in the D3.

Yes precipitation amounts are very spotty which the drought monitor cannot show. 

[CentralNebWeather]

[Stormy]

Currently it's 96⁰ with a dew of 83⁰ right beside a cornfield. It would be ridiculous with all of this heat and humidity, (models basically are showing most of the storms staying ne. and sw. of my area tonight and the NWS lowered rain chances to only 30%) and we don't get widespread storms! Ugh if that pans out! 

[Andie]

Currently 98*. Tomorrow 102*
Meanwhile, let’s dream a little

[Bryan1117]

Just drove home from downtown Omaha and hit torrential rain and up to marble sized hail on the way home. This was the case until exactly one mile east of my house… once I got back home and not a darn drop of rain fell. Crazy summer weather! Thankfully our neighbor’s pool party tonight is back on.

[Stormy]

Well storms have really blown up recently and the anvils actually made it all the way down here already. And it seems the storms are beginning to move southeast so hopefully it'll reach down to my area. 

A supercell near @james1976 place had been tornado warned earlier. If you're in Iowa did you experience a good storm?

[hawkstwelve]

The Black Hills are such an amazing area! We had a great time on our camping trip and luckily it did not get as insanely hot and humid as it got here. Highly recommend a visit!

Pics are from Custer State Park, Sylvan Lake, Needles Hwy, and Mount Rushmore.

[hawkstwelve]

On the weather front, storms didn't pan out here today but looks like IA, WI, and N IL are getting some action. Temps look to fall into the mid 80s tomorrow. A welcome reprieve!

[Iowawx]

Easily the strongest storm we've had here since the August 2020 derecho here. Wind gust of 90mph was recorded in Hiawatha, and lots of 70-80mph wind reports across the CR area. 

[Clinton]

Very hot and breezy day today with a high of 103.  Several waves rounding the ridge the next several days could bring some relief and beneficial rains. 

Here is some good news for everyone.

[Jayhawker85]

Seems like the storms are struggling to make it into kc which is crazy with all this heat and humidity. I’m just ready for winter to arrive!

[OttumwaSnomow]

What a storm! Had it all. Heavy  rain, wind and dime size hail! I call them cabooses.  West to east sagging front and cells keep former further west and I get one of last cells! .62 in 20 minutes!  Get that horrible  air from past 3 days out of here!!

[Hoosier]

Well, that was fairly decent.  Estimating lower end severe winds here, but the duration of those gusts was pretty impressive.  And in a case of looking in the right spot at the right time, I saw a transformer blow in the western sky about halfway through the storm.  Fortunately did not lose power here.

[james1976]

5 hours ago, Stormy said:

Well storms have really blown up recently and the anvils actually made it all the way down here already. And it seems the storms are beginning to move southeast so hopefully it'll reach down to my area. 

A supercell near @james1976 place had been tornado warned earlier. If you're in Iowa did you experience a good storm?

Yeah there was a tornado on the ground bout 20 miles west of me. I was actually in Waterloo when this was all going down. I checked my phone and my place was in a Tornado Warning and a Severe Thunderstorm Warning at the same time. I dont think I've seen that before. I got back safely. Didn't appear to be anything severe at my place. Received a beneficial 0.60" of rainfall though. 

[james1976]

1 hour ago, OttumwaSnomow said:

What a storm! Had it all. Heavy  rain, wind and dime size hail! I call them cabooses.  West to east sagging front and cells keep former further west and I get one of last cells! .62 in 20 minutes!  Get that horrible  air from past 3 days out of here!!

Yeah it cleared out nice and comfy post front

[james1976]

2 hours ago, Clinton said:

Very hot and breezy day today with a high of 103.  Several waves rounding the ridge the next several days could bring some relief and beneficial rains. 

Here is some good news for everyone.

Wow 103 air temp! What was heat index? We were in the recording studio today in Iowa City. It was 97 with a HI of 109. I stepped outside and it was brutal. I told our engineer "hey come here step out the door!" So he comes over and opens the door....turns and goes back to the air conditioning. Lol

[james1976]

5 hours ago, hawkstwelve said:

The Black Hills are such an amazing area! We had a great time on our camping trip and luckily it did not get as insanely hot and humid as it got here. Highly recommend a visit!

Pics are from Custer State Park, Sylvan Lake, Needles Hwy, and Mount Rushmore.

I was there when I was younger. Awesome experience! If you get a chance....check out the Badlands in western North Dakota. Way Awesome. And the bison just walk right in front of ya. Gotta respect em!

[Stormy]

1 hour ago, OttumwaSnomow said:

What a storm! Had it all. Heavy  rain, wind and dime size hail! I call them cabooses.  West to east sagging front and cells keep former further west and I get one of last cells! .62 in 20 minutes!  Get that horrible  air from past 3 days out of here!!

That's exactly the amount of rain I ended up with in about the same amount as time, minus the hail. The lightning here was similar. Rainfall rates were a little underwhelming here and didn't even quite hit 3" as the storm was in a weakening phase, but still decent with winds around 40mph. The main gust front blew in over 1 hr. prior, blowing lots of dust around. So thankful for this much rain! The heaviest storms basically developed due south from just west of Cedar Rapids to just west of me, where more rain fell. 

[Stormy]

19 minutes ago, james1976 said:

I was there when I was younger. Awesome experience! If you get a chance....check out the Badlands in western North Dakota. Way Awesome. And the bison just walk right in front of ya. Gotta respect em!

Same here. Was through there twice with the last time 25+ years ago. 

[Hawkeye]

I got 60+ mph wind from the storm outflow, then a decent 0.69" of rain.  The surging outflow meant the heavy rain did not stick around very long.  Much of the area got less than, or even much less than, an inch.  Northern Illinois was fortunate to get some nice training storms.  That's what we need here.

[Hoosier]

Forgot to mention that dews ticked above 80 here earlier, which is a fairly unusual occurrence (doesn't occur at all in some summers) as I'm not exactly in the presence of corn fields.

[westMJim]

The official H/L yesterday at Grand Rapids was 88/70. That low of 70 is the warmest low for this year so far. There was a trace of rain fall before midnight. The sun was out a reported 60% of the possible time. The highest wind gust was 25 MPH out of the west. For today the average H/L is 83/63 the record high of 103 was set in 1916 the record low of 47 was set in 1971. The record rain fall amount of 1.74” fell in 1905. Last year the H/L was 78/60. So far for today I recorded 0.85” of rain fall from the thunderstorms overnight. The low so far and current temperature is 69

[Andie]

A very nice 78* this morning. 
We’ll be facing 101/102. Air quality alerts are up. Ozone high.  

This next month is peak summer so we’ll buckle up for the ride with water hose in hand.  Haven’t seen many birds this summer but saw a red tail hawk in neighbors tree. Lizards and wildlife still managing so I guess we humans will too!
 

 

[Clinton]

5 hours ago, james1976 said:

Wow 103 air temp! What was heat index? We were in the recording studio today in Iowa City. It was 97 with a HI of 109. I stepped outside and it was brutal. I told our engineer "hey come here step out the door!" So he comes over and opens the door....turns and goes back to the air conditioning. Lol

Highest heat index here was 107 yesterday as things have dried back out, we also had a consistent breeze between 15 and 25mph.

[Clinton]

7 hours ago, Jayhawker85 said:

Seems like the storms are struggling to make it into kc which is crazy with all this heat and humidity. I’m just ready for winter to arrive!

The radar looks impressive this morning with the storms rolling SE out of Nebraska.  Cross our fingers that these can hold together and give us a cooler and wetter day than we had yesterday,  This pic looks like it will be north of us but I bet they issue a STW that includes both of us soon.

[Tom]

5 hours ago, james1976 said:

I was there when I was younger. Awesome experience! If you get a chance....check out the Badlands in western North Dakota. Way Awesome. And the bison just walk right in front of ya. Gotta respect em!

My cousin also stopped by the Badlands on his road trip to Winter Park, CO and it sorta reminds me of Bryce Canyon without the reddish/orange colors.  Beautiful landscape.

[FV-Mike]

Wow, big time storms for N IL yesterday evening. DuPage airport recorded 3.17 inches of rain. about 2 miles from my house. tons of lightening.

[Clinton]

STW issued for the KC metro until 2pm.

[Clinton]

GEFS and EPS showing several ridge riders and disturbances over the next 10 days.

[chescowxman]

Most spots exceeded the 90 degree mark yesterday across Chesco...exceptions being KMQS Coatesville Airport and of course here in East Nantmeal where 86.8 was the best we could do. My Ambient model station only made it to 86.2 (although my rooftop station did hit 90.9). It appears most spots will not hit 90 degrees today. In fact looking ahead it appears yesterday may have been our last 90 degree day for the summer. It looks like here in East Nantmeal we will fail to have reached 90 degrees in summer for the first time since 2015 and for the 4th time in the last 20 years! The other years we failed to touch 90 degrees were 2004, and 2014. More thunderstorms are possible tonight as sharp cold front approaches and moves through the County. Some incredibly comfortable weather moves in this week with most days featuring highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's - a chance to give the AC a break!!

Records for today: High 101 (1901) / Low 47 (1956) / Rain 2.48" (1976)

[Andie]

I know I shouldn’t laugh but this pretty much sums up the summer here.   
Old Mother Nature has a perverted sense of humor!

[CentralNebWeather]

Frustrating morning in my area seeing 2 different large rain storms miss me.  Was in a watch, and it looked so promising. Many places not too far away got several inches. It is really something how quick that a week of 100 degree weather can dry everything out. Small chances tonight, but not to impressive imo. 

[CentralNebWeather]

I see that Sutton Nebraska is in a state of emergency after storms rolled through there this morning causing significant damage. They have a population of around 1400. Pictures I’ve seen show major damage to their Main Street. Looks like it wasn’t from a tornado, rather straight wind damage. I’d guess crops took a major hit. 
 

Update 4:30 pm:  NWS Hastings and others now out looking at the damage say it could have been a tornado. 

[OKwx2k4]

2 hours ago, Andie said:

I know I shouldn’t laugh but this pretty much sums up the summer here.   
Old Mother Nature has a perverted sense of humor!

I feel like Michigan did back in spring. Lol. 

[Hawkeye]

This morning's Euro is the best run in a while for Iowa.  However, if you end up just north of the ring of fire, you get nothing.